The Adventurous Quest to Capture Remote Buddhist Caves in the 1940s

Mogao Cave 158. Middle Tang (781–848) Reclining Buddha, Parinirvāṇa scene. West wall. Lo Archive photograph, 1943–44. Princeton University (Lo 158-10). All images from “Visualizing Dunhuang: Seeing, Studying, and Conserving the Caves,” published by Princeton University Press. Article by Winnie Lee. Atlas Obscura – May 11, 2021.

Innovative photographers James and Lucy Lo created a time capsule of a sacred space at a vulnerable time.

In the spring of 1943, during the Sino-Japanese War, photographer James Lo and his wife Lucy Lo ventured to a set of remote, nearly abandoned caves near where the ancient northern and southern Silk Road trade routes converged, at the nexus of China and Central Asia. There were 700 […]

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